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Shaun Weima hadn’t been home long from teaching for the day when he realized he’d left his guitar in the back seat of his car.

When he walked out to his vehicle a week ago today, he was met with perhaps the worst Christmas gift any musician could imagine.

“My car was right there at my own house,” he said.

“And someone had thrown a rock through my window and taken my acoustic.”

The Yamaha fg460 was Weima’s go-to guitar, both for playing in his popular band, Ianspotting, and for teaching guitar lessons at Kingston School of Music. But that isn’t all that made it a guitar he held close to his heart, both literally ad figuratively.

“The guitar was my aunt’s. She passed away in 1990, and eventually it got passed on to me,” said Weima.

Weima said he is beyond upset at the loss of his guitar. On top of that loss, a lot of his music books in a blue MEC bag were also stolen, and he ended up with a broken window that had to be replaced quickly in the cold and wet weather.

Weima immediately filed a report with the Kingston Police, he said, and has been actively looking through pawn shops and music stores that carry used instruments.

His efforts have produced no results so far, and he is growing fearful he may never get the cherished six-string back.

The event has led Weima to one conclusion, however, and it’s a piece of advice he says other guitarists should heed.

“I’ve already taken photos of the serial numbers on all of my other guitars,” he said.

“Definitely, definitely a good idea to have that information.”

Weima has taken to social media, alerting his friends, students and fellow musicians of the theft, and is asking for people to keep their eyes peeled for the 1986 Yamaha fg460 acoustic guitar. His father, whose sister once owned the guitar, had this to say about the tragic incident that resulted in his son losing his favourite instrument:

“This is a very special, priceless guitar used by Shaun at every music gig he did, and played with passion! A guitar previously owned by my sister, Janet, who passed away in 1990, and also loved and sang with that guitar,” he wrote on Weima’s Facebook wall.

“I hope the person who took it acquires a conscience of some sort. Hang in there Shaun!”

In Shaun’s words, describing how awful it is to be without his instrument was best said by his father in that post.

“It was his sister’s guitar, and then his son’s,” Weima said.

“He knows how special it is.”

While Weima is happy that he can continue playing thanks to his other guitars and friends in the local music scene, nothing can replace the guitar that had become such a integral part of his life, he said.